Improvement in the construction of water-wheels



` A Uwrrnn Afinar Ormes,

NELSON JOHNSON, OF TRIANGLE, NFV YORK.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. @,li, dated June 272, 1841.

To all whont t may concern:

Be it known that I, NELSON JOHNSON, of l`riangle, in the county of Broome and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Vater-WVheels, called Johnsons Improved Direct Percussion and Reaction XVater-VheeL which is described as follows, reference being had to the annexed drawings of the same, making part of this specification.

Figure l is a top view of the wheel. Fig. 2 is a view of the wheel turned upside down, or bottom View. Fig. 3 is an edge or side view or side elevation. Figa is a vertical section taken at the dotted line a: fr of Fig. l; Fig. 5, one of the buckets detached from the wheel 5 Fig. G, a side View of the wheel as modified for a counter-balance in sawunills.

Similar letters refer to similar parts in the figures.

This improved water-wheel consists of a circular concavo-convex rim A, (shaped on the outside to resemble the section of a bell,with the upper part cut off horizontally,) the greater diameter being downward and projected so as to form a flange or lip to extend over the deck, and concentric with this rim A is another riin D, of nearly the same form, but of greater di ameter, the one placed so far from the other as to leave a space between the two sufficiently large to admit the concave buckets c, which are placed and secured between said rims. The upperedge of the outer rim D is scalloped to correspond with thecurvatnre of the buckets c,wh1ch are generally placedto correspond with said scallops, although they may sometimes be placed a little below the edges of the scallops, in order to allow the buckets to carry a greater' quant-ity of water. The buckets c are made concave on the upper side, or the segment of a circle of any required degree, and placed be tween the rims at an angle of about thirty or forty degrees with a horizontal plane when the wheel is designed to turn horizontally, as in this case. The edges will of course conform in shape to the rims against which they are' fitted and secured. The rims willbe the same or nearly the same depth. The outerone will be set higher than the inner one. The inner rim will be scalloped from the lower edge of each bucket to near the middle of the same, as at B. These scallops are to allow the water to escape more freely from the wheel after it has performed its office. The scallops in the outer rim are for the purpose of allowing the water to have a more direct percussion on the buckets as it passes in from the top and edge of the wheel. The lip around the lower edge of the outer rim must run close to the upper side of the deck of the scrollto prevent the escape of the water. This arrangement will throw the greater portion of the wheel inside the scroll and out of the backwater, and will expose the whole wheel to the direct percussion and reaction force of the water as it is thrown into the scroll. The water will strike directlyagainst the concave face of the buckets and cause the wheel to turn in the same direction as the water enters, the water acting by percussion. It will then leave the wheel in a contrary direction, acting on the wheel byits gravity and causing the wheel to continueits rcvolvingmotionin thesamedirection as produced bythe percussion, the water acting on three inclined surfaces of every issue at the same ti1ne-na1nely,onthe two rims and on the buckets-producing much more power by a given quantity of water than in the Y use of any other wheel. Around the smaller diameter of the inner rim is secured a vertical rim F, which fits and is fastened to the shaft of the water-wheel.

Two wheels made in the manner above de scribed Vmay be fixed on a horizontal shaft and made to turn vertically, in which case the fianges or lips of thelarger rim will run close against the inside of the deck of the scroll to prevent the escape of water. This arrangement will throw the whole face of each wheel into the scroll to be acted on by the water therein, which fills the issues entering at the scalloped sides of the outer rim.

In my old form of wheels heretofore patented the flange or lip was placed around the smaller diameter of the outer rim, which caused the wheel to be brought outside the deck and in back-water, which retarded its motion. y

This principle of wheel maybe so modified in its construction that it may be used as a iy or counterbalance wheel to act against the saw-frame and pitman of a saw-mill, which will reduce the friction created by the use of separate balance-wheels, as formerly used, the principal object, however, being to produce a counter-balance in order to regulate the motion of the water-wheel and to save water. For this purpose, in Casting the wheel several of the issues must be cast solid, which will szwe Water and cause the Wheel to niove asa fly or balance wheel and with n regular and Steady motion.

That I claim as my invention, und which I desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The manner in which I have combined the buckets c With the inner bell-shaped rixn A and outer conical rim D by forming the scallops S in the upper edge of said outer rim D z'. e.,where the Waterenters-instead of in the lower edge. of said rim, Where it discharges, as in my original improvement, and combining one edge of the bucket with the scallops thus arranged and the other with the inner bell-shaped rim, as set forth.

NELSON JOHNSON. Witnesses:

WM. P. ELLIOT, C. H. WILTBERGER. 

